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Published: December 1st 2014
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In Kyoto, the bastion of Japanese tradition, we stayed in a traditional inn called a ryokan. This meant staying in a tami room, sleeping on a futon, taking your shoes off and traditional breakfasts. Although Matsubaya Ryokan was a number of blocks from the Kyoto station and down a small side street we found it - thanks to checking it out the night before on Google street view. When all the street signs are in Japanese characters it is comforting to see a familiar landmark. This area is very traditional and being near a large working temple the majority of the shops sell Budhist religious items such as prayer beads.
That night a restaurant was recommended to us. It was located deeper into the narrow streets and was not particularly obvious. Inside it was a family run eatery and the food was stunning. An elderly couple, the only other customers, asked us in english where we came from and then excitedly told us that they had visited Australia and had loved it. They said that the chef was a master - we would agree.
In the morning we set off early to find a bamboo forest located amongst a
large number of zen temples. The forest was well signposted and we got out photos. A nearby zen Budhist temple had world heritage listed gardens. They are amazing, most trees seem to have been sculpted into large versions of bonsai, it is hard to imagine how long it must take to do that. These gardens dates back to the 1300s. So they have had time.
Next we set off to see if we could find a monkey park we had heard about. By now it was mid morning on a Sunday and the crowds were building rapidly. A surprising number of people were wearing kimonos, not quite sure why.
Getting to the monkey park required climbing a very steep path winding high up a mountain, with just a thin rope as a guard. Despite the difficult climb people of all ages, from toddlers to stooped grandmothers, were making their way beside us. The wild monkeys were a delight, giving us plenty of amusement and a chance to catch our breath.
We joined the throng back down on the river bank having a picnic lunch of bbq shaslicks, corn on the cob and beers. Small whole fish grilled
on a skewer seemed to be very popular.
With the days objective met by lunch time we decided to stop off on the train ride home to see the Kyoto castle. This was once the imperial palace (another world heritage site). The moats were awesome, and the palace massive. The wooden floor of the palace had been designed to squeak when walked upon, in order to alert the guards of any would be intruders. As befitting an imperial palace the gardens were stunning.
By now our feet were telling us we had done a lot of walking and rain clouds were building, so we headed home.
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Anita
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Fun to see some repeats of where we went... the bamboo forest, the castle. Not sure if your Zen garden is one of the 2 we went to (Ryoanji and Nanzenji). We didn't make it to the monkey place as the kids were tired and didn't want to walk up the hill, but we did go on that bridge. And I think you are getting more upscale food than we did... with 3 kids we went cheap and kid-friendly so lots of udon and takeout from the 7-11s, not so much with the nicer restaurants. I want to go back in the fall some year... or spring when the trees are blossoming...